Supporting the well-being of Canada’s health care workers
Canada's Health Workforce Well-Being Plan aims to improve working conditions, reduce administrative burdens, and prioritize well-being across the health care system.
A multi-year plan to support workers
Canada's Health Workforce Well-Being Plan is a multi-year effort to support the well-being of health care professionals, helping enable a resilient workforce to thrive in their roles. Funded with a $3.5 million contribution from Health Canada, the plan will bring together a diverse group of partners to identify, develop and prioritize solutions to the well-being crisis.
A Canadian approach
The Clinician Well-Being Collaborative led by the U.S. National Academy of Medicine (NAM) brought together health care leaders to tackle clinician burnout. Our plan builds on this work and focuses on supporting the mental, emotional and physical health of health care professionals nationwide. Canada's Health Workforce Well-being Plan launched in 2023, with a final action plan expected in 2028.
Facing a health care workforce crisis
It’s a vicious cycle: burnout and stress lead to staff shortages, early retirements, worsening work conditions, mental health struggles, increased suicide rates and impacts to patient care — leading to more burnout and stress.
The COVID pandemic made it worse. Most health care workers reported feeling more stressed at work (86.5%) and having an increased workload (74.6%).1 This national plan addresses a critical need as burnout rates continue to rise post-COVID.
1. Experiences of health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, September to November 2021